Real Education Solutions

Solutions That Work

We've scoured the Internet and the websites of dozens of education organizations to find the things that most experts agree make for better schools. Not surprisingly, these things just make common sense! Read these resources and decide for yourself. And, let us know if there are studies that you've run across that you think we should post here.

Having parents more involved

One of the steps to improving education that pops up on almost every survey in the news is greater involvement of parents. There's a lot of research backing up that widely held opinion among parents and educators.

The National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education summarizes the research showing how having involved parents boosts students' performance. Link
The National Parent Teacher Association offers ways for parents to become more involved in their child's education. Link
The National Conference of State Legislatures gives an overview of the evidence on parental involvement and looks at different methods of ensuring and increasing parental involvement. Link
This public television report shows that a positive parent-teacher partnership is crucial for a child's education. Link
Project Appleseed provides a checklist on what makes an effective parent-teacher partnership. Link

Quality teachers are critical, and offering decent salaries helps attract and hold them

It's difficult, if not impossible to educate children effectively without good, caring teachers. That's a widely held sentiment among parents and education experts alike.

The Center on Education Policy looks at the progress that has been made on teacher quality and suggests teacher quality can be improved even further by increasing teacher salaries, improving teachers' working conditions and eliminating inequities in assignments of fully credentialed teachers. Link
The National School Boards Association's Center for Public Education provides a research review of teacher quality and student achievement. It shows the importance of teacher quality as well as characteristics of a quality teacher. Link
This Stanford University report examines teacher quality and concludes: "policies adopted by states regarding teacher education, licensing, hiring, and professional development may make an important difference in the qualifications and capacities that teachers bring to their work." Link
The National Conference of State Legislatures reviews what states have been doing to improve teacher quality. It finds: "Recent studies in Tennessee, Boston, and Texas confirm that students taught by the most qualified and effective teachers achieve at higher levels." Link
The Center for American Progress offers ideas to improve teacher quality, including restructuring teacher compensation. This would include "raising starting salaries to recruit well-prepared new teachers; basing a proportion of pay on teacher skills and knowledge and on teacher success in increasing student achievement; and providing incentive pay to work in challenging schools or to teach subjects with serious teacher shortages." Link
The Public Education Network examines what it means to have a 'quality teacher' and offers suggestions on how communities can ensure teacher quality. Link

Giving kids more attention through smaller class sizes

Many parents are concerned about the level of attention their child can get in large, crowded classes, no matter how good a teacher is. That's why parents, educators and, as you can see below, the experts all agree that having smaller classes allows teachers to devote their full attention to their students. There are efforts in states such as Florida to shrink class sizes to benefit students, though some politicians have objected because of budget concerns. The research below suggests that if you believe that America having world-class schools is a national priority, it's too costly not to shrink class sizes.

Reduce Class Size Now provides research and state-by-state information about the importance of smaller classes. Link
Arizona State University researchers looked at the research on smaller classes and found that "Class-size reduction is sound education policy. It has been shown to be effective time and again, and no serious challenge has been made to the research findings that support those conclusions." Link
Another Arizona State University report shows that a Wisconsin class size reduction program, the Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE), strongly improved student achievement — particularly for students in earlier grades and minorities. Link
This U.S. Department of Education report examines the clear benefits of the federal Class Size Reduction program. Link
The American Research Association shows the positive effects vs. the costs of reducing class sizes for low-income and minority students. Link

Closing the achievement gap among different groups of students

Our country is a growing, diverse nation of over 300 million people. Tomorrow's workforce is in our schools today. If we want America to prosper in the future, we need to ensure all of our kids have access to a quality education. This means we have to close what many experts call the "achievement gap" between the academic performance of students from different backgrounds. Some say the federal "No Child Left Behind" law was designed to do that, though there have been enormous problems in how the law is being put to use. Here's an overview of some recent research on efforts to closing the achievement gap. Some of that research deals with the controversy surrounding the "No Child Left Behind" law.

The Education Commission of the States provides an overview on what states are doing to close the achievement gap in schools. Link
The National Governors Association also provides an analysis of state actions to close the achievement gap. Link
The Harvard Civil Rights Project examines the issues surrounding minority education and looks at current policies and how they affect minorities. Link
The National Conference of State Legislatures examines positive and negative effects of the federal "No Child Left Behind." In addition, the report recommends other solutions and methods to close the achievement gap such as providing more flexibility to states and more funding for the law. Link
The Center on Education Policy examines the implementation of the federal "No Child Left Behind" law. Link

Early childhood education pays off

Today's policy research is backing up what parents have known for years: early education pays huge dividends later in life. Study after study shows that kids who go to preschool are better prepared for school, less likely to run into trouble, and more likely to succeed professionally and personally as adults. Even from a strictly economic perspective, studies have shown that a state's investment in preschool programs pays off exponentially in terms of future job growth and economic strength.

Researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston found that childhood ãearly interventionä programs ö such as Early Head Start ö make for healthier adults. Link
A RAND Institute study of early education in California shows that for every dollar spent on pre-school programs, the state will reap $2.62 in benefits. This includes lower crime rates, reduced expenses on future remedial education, and the state's tax benefits of future earnings by children who attended preschool. Link
The High/Scope Perry Preschool study shows the benefits to society of investing in preschool for children born into poverty. Link
A 2005 report in Developmental Psychology indicates that Oklahoma's preschool program has helped prepare children for school. The report finds: "A universal pre-K program financed by state government and implemented by the public schools can improve prereading, prewriting, and prenumeracy skills for a diverse cross-section of young children." Link
Children who attend high-quality, state-funded, preschool programs have improved math and language abilities, according to a study by the National Institute for Early Education Research. Link

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